Nurse from Worcester was in mid-flight lifesaving role

Sunday

Jan 5, 2014 at 7:22 PM

By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Rosemary Smith was part of a miracle this holiday season, and it had nothing to do with toys or chimneys.

Ms. Smith, who is originally from Worcester and lives in Washington, D.C., was on a JetBlue flight from D.C. to Puerto Rico Dec. 8 when she heard screaming coming from the back of the plane, and staff asked whether there were any medical professionals on board.

Ms. Smith, a 2007 graduate of St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic Junior-Senior High School, is a registered nurse in the cardiovascular recovery room at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. She went toward the screaming, as did Jeanne Gallahue, a CPR instructor from Westwood, Mass. The emergency was that a 6-month-old baby girl named Jasmine was unresponsive and not breathing, Ms. Smith said by telephone Friday.

Another passenger, Nancy Hernandez, who is from Puerto Rico, helped the rescuers communicate with the baby's family, who only spoke Spanish. Nothing about the baby's past could explain her condition, Ms. Smith said.

With Ms. Hernandez translating and flight attendants helping, Ms. Smith and Ms. Gallahue did CPR on the baby for more than an hour, keeping her alive while the plane backtracked to North Carolina. The baby was rushed to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C., and discharged three days later.

"I just kind of keep telling people that the crew on board and the people that I met that day … everyone worked together," Ms. Smith said. "I'm just very grateful for everyone I met. ... I'm just very happy that she's alive and well."

It was the first time Ms. Smith, 25, has had to apply her skills in such dramatic fashion while she wasn't at work.

Her co-workers at MedStar were excited, said Ann Marie Madden, a registered nurse who is assistant vice president for the MedStar Heart Institute. "It's the root of what she is," Ms. Madden said. "She has a very positive attitude toward life and towards patients."

Ms. Smith also has a new friend. Ms. Gallahue was a stranger before the incident Dec. 8, but Ms. Smith, who was in Worcester to see her family for the holidays, visited with Ms. Gallahue, too.

That was after Ms. Smith's trip to Puerto Rico. She did, eventually, meet her mother and sister there as planned, some nine hours after she took off from Washington.

Contact Jacqueline Reis at jreis@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter@JackieReisTG.